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I think the characterization of this being a compromise is not accurate at all in a couple of different areas. First it seems to have been forced upon the players. Plus is it free speech if they are only allowed to do it where no one else can see, i.e the locker room?

Free speech only applies to the government not a private employer. The government can't force the players, but the NFL may be able to if it doesn't violate the CBA.

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Lots of people protest in lots of ways and for the most part its either the wrong way ( negative publicity, riots ect) and then they move on. The protests come to an end and then its old news or in the wash. Some people will even protest and not even know the reason why they are protesting.

What they fail to do is to continue the process in the right and constructive way in my opinion. I personally quit watching the news because rarely do you see anything POSITIVE. There are lots of positive things in this world and country but what we get fed is mainly negative. And what i have seen is negativity breeds negativity.

Even in a perfect world there will always be somebody who doesn't feel equal FOR WHATEVER REASON. I believe it is just us as humans.

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I've generally stayed out of the kneeling threads because the issue is just so stupid, but these are my thoughts:

This whole thing started the Sunday morning Kaepernick was told he was no longer the starter. He throws a temper tantrum by kneeling for the Anthem in defiance of his coach. After the game and he's calmed down a bit, some reporter sticks a mic in his face about why he knelt, and he fabricates some canned issue that generally gets unwavering popular support, some sort of persistent inequality in our country. He didn't say it was about police or a racist slave owner song writer writing the anthem. It was the generic feeling of inequality. An easy way to get support.

(Edit: You know, if I was a QB "of color" and got benched in favor of Blaine Gabbert, I'd probably come up with all sorts of wild excuses about how racist the country is just so I wouldn't have to admit to myself I was worse than Blaine Gabbert)

Because the concept of existing inequality must always be brought out in the public forum, unrelenting for decades, there are groups of people who are triggered into giving unconditional support for that concept even when a person does something really stupid to raise the issue. With that mindset, others come to his defense.

Realizing that protesting the anthem has nothing to do with inequality, the whole group, who have now embarrassed themselves by defending the reason for Kaep's protest, have to come up with another reason for the protest that tries to make sense of it. They fabricate the lame excuse that a verse originally written by slave owner Key alluded to ownership of people, and that the verse (that isn't part of the song) means the rest of the song that became the national anthem is a racist song. (Avoiding the obvious, that politicians TOOK OUT that verse of the song in order to make it acceptable for the rest of the song to be the national anthem)

Having taken yet another step down the rabbit hole of stupidity by fabricating yet a third lame excuse, these people finally grab some issue of the day worth protesting, police brutality, and then say that was/is the reason for the kneeling in the first place.

Instead of just letting these people totally embarrass themselves with going down these rabbit holes of made up reasons for defending Kaep's original temper tantrum protest for being benched, politicians and the commissioner get involved, making the whole stupid temper tantrum by Kaep some sort of national issue.

Having said that. This policy does nothing. Players are still protesting the anthem by staying in the locker room. There is no difference between kneeling and staying back. Its an irrelevant policy that we are supposed to think means something.

So anybody who is offended by ignorant players protesting the NATIONAL anthem over police brutality committed by local municipalities' police forces (no such thing as a national police force, so maybe a Raven should protest the city of Baltimore instead?), or because the writer was a slave owner and the song was edited before it became the anthem, or because of general inequality, or simply because Kaep sucks and got benched, this policy shouldn't really appease anybody.

They're still protesting by being absent.

With regards to the policy, the NFL is in a no-win situation. If they don't say anything, one group of fans will be upset that they're letting this continue. If they take a side, fans of the opposing side will complain. Then you have the NFLPA that is adamantly determined to simply disagree with anything and everything the NFL does. I feel like this is far from over...

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I believe what Johnson is trying to say is that he will gladly pay the fines if his players protest on the field. It is a way of the owner saying I understand your plight, I have your back. I respect that. How many others came out and said, " I have your back". Not many.

I also agree with Sage.

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I believe what Johnson is trying to say is that he will gladly pay the fines if his players protest on the field. It is a way of the owner saying I understand your plight, I have your back. I respect that. How many others came out and said, " I have your back". Not many.

I also agree with Sage.

That is the way I took it

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I believe what Johnson is trying to say is that he will gladly pay the fines if his players protest on the field. It is a way of the owner saying I understand your plight, I have your back. I respect that. How many others came out and said, " I have your back". Not many.

All I said was that he may have meant that he would pay any fine that a player may caused the team, but that's not what the tweet said. You quoted me saying it did and I correctly pointed out that it in fact the tweet did not say that. You seem to care about it much more than I do.

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Only in the US. In my neck of the woods(Europe) people ridicule that obsession with fake displays of patriotism in US sports(the anthem, the parroting of the military, etc.). I've been a fan of multiple sports and I cannot think of a single one in any country other than the US(and Canada?) that plays the national anthem before games of club teams. The only time they play the anthems is before national teams competitions/games/events.

Same down here in New Zealand with the exception of a grand final

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I think the characterization of this being a compromise is not accurate at all in a couple of different areas. First it seems to have been forced upon the players. Plus is it free speech if they are only allowed to do it where no one else can see, i.e the locker room?

Its better than being forced on the field and standing, and yes it is free speech because you are still making a choice and expressing yourself. Not sure if you're aware that you don't actually have to be someplace to express yourself. A lack of presence by choice is still an expression.

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Of course there is hypocrisy - you are OK with NFL and NFL teams draping the flag horizontally before EVERY SINGLE GAME even though it's explicitly against the 'respect of the flag' code because their intention is not to disrespect, but you don't extend the same courtesy to the players, who do something that's advised against in the very same document, but they explicitly say they mean no disrespect . This is the embodiment and definition of hypocrisy

You might very well be right about the prudence of their strategy, but this is not really what we are talking about. Also, it's worth pointing out that this is NOT the only way they are drawing attention and addressing the issues they seem to care about. I wonder if you knew that and purposely ignored it or if you didn't even know about it?

Its not about the "issues," its about this issue. They don't go about inciting controversy for every issue they care about do they?

For those of us who don't live in a black and white world, there is a difference between the horizontal flag and kneeling. One isn't about a personal agenda meant to incite controversy.

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I stand corrected on the players part, then. Still the part about the DoD paying for anthems and staging of military displays of patriotism is well documented.

That doesn't change that it existed for 70 years before that. You have yet to acknowledge that part. Somehow because the person who pays for it changes, the sincerity and value to those whom it matters changes as well? Ya that makes sense.

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I didn't disagree. The military tried to use that stuff more for recruiting than anything else. It was a hey, look at me thing

But not the anthem, which is what were discussing. The anthem existed 70 years prior to the contract ever occurring. As part of the NFL allowing the marketing, the DoD had to take over paying for the performances as well.

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the first amendment and the right to free speech are irrelevant to the NFL's anthem policy. The first amendment protects us from Congress passing laws that would prohibit our right to free speech. This policy is about a private company's rules for conduct of their players.

Now if Congress were trying to pass a law forcing players to stand during the anthem, then the first amendment would come into play.

This is true, that businesses have the right to make their own rules, but some choose when to acknowledge this. You have every right to express your opinion and views and no one should create rules that restrict this...so long as it fits within the approved spectrum.

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This wasn't the stated reason the movement was started. Not saying the George Takei is wrong, but Kaeps message evolved and changed over time. It started out about blaming the country for the actions of the police and then more on to this. The acts that he is protesting are disgusting and I often get into debates with people about the so called justification of many of these police actions. I believe people have to right to openly refuse to identify themselves as most times when you are asked to identify yourself, they have no reasonable cause or suspicion to detain you. I believe that the police of the U.S. often abuse their powers and have become too militaristic in their tactics and these people should be whole heartedly be held accountable and put in jail.

But I do not blame the entirety of the nation, its people or the U.S. governments policies for the actions of the few and the corruption of those who justify the actions. The government and it's people for the most part do exemplify what the flag and the anthem, are supposed to represent. If they are suggesting that the U.S. government should take over every state, county, and municipalities jurisdictions for purpose of adjudication, then they are advocating for the eradication of individual states rights and peoples liberty to choose by election.

You cannot eradicate evil people. Look how often acts of kindness by police go unnoticed. There are dozens of more stories about how police are helping people and going out of their way to buy people groceries, buy their children car seats, pay their rent, buy a new bike, help them find jobs, and the list goes on. But that stuff doesn't get page hits and ratings.

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Land of the free, where children can shoot themselves and people defend their right to carry guns like they still live in the Wild West, where even Nazis can speak freely because of freedom of speech but some athletes kneeling during an anthem or kneeling in front of a piece of cloth? That's an absolutely no go... americans are killing me sometimes with that kind of hypocrisy and blind patriotism.

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Land of the free, where children can shoot themselves and people defend their right to carry guns like they still live in the Wild West, where even Nazis can speak freely because of freedom of speech but some athletes kneeling during an anthem or kneeling in front of a piece of cloth? That's an absolutely no go... americans are killing me sometimes with that kind of hypocrisy and blind patriotism.

Children can shoot themselves yes, usually because of improper gun safety measures from adults. But we have never allowed ourselves to be take over by a tyrannical government because we disarmed ourselves.

Sure Nazi's can speak freely because they have the right, no one really agrees with them and that is why they are usually shut down. But we have never allowed a Nazi to be in power and slaughter millions of people because of their religion or political views.

Europeans are killing me with their down their nose judgements while hiding in a corners from their past.

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Never got the connection between kneeling for the anthem and the problem they were protesting. Seems ignorant.

I think I'll follow their lead. My employer has a policy of no soft drinks at the work station. Because this country has had a history of inequality, slave ownership, and now police brutality, I think I'll protest buy drinking a coke while I work today.

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But not the anthem, which is what were discussing. The anthem existed 70 years prior to the contract ever occurring. As part of the NFL allowing the marketing, the DoD had to take over paying for the performances as well.

I know I was talking about the other stuff, like fly overs, repelling from choppers, purchasing ticket blocks etc.

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Land of the free, where children can shoot themselves and people defend their right to carry guns like they still live in the Wild West, where even Nazis can speak freely because of freedom of speech but some athletes kneeling during an anthem or kneeling in front of a piece of cloth? That's an absolutely no go... americans are killing me sometimes with that kind of hypocrisy and blind patriotism.

Did we insult your country? No, so take that crap elsewhere before it creates a giant argument and thus a forum lock down.

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I love that Wayne and Mathis have taken on coaching roles with the team. Horseshoe guys for life.....except for that half a training camp Reggie spent with the evil empire that we don’t like to talk about.